Final Moments
by Kiloueka
Summary: She just wanted to hold him. One last time. Set some unspecified time before the game's events. Ending E spoilers. (Yeah I have no idea wtf happened with my last upload and this site's too confusing to edit it so I just deleted and am reuploading)


_Emotions are prohibited._

That's what she told herself time and time again to shield herself from the pain from killing the one she cared so deeply about over and over.

 _Emotions are prohibited._

She wasn't very good at following that order. Even if she was able to put on a stoic face and fool those around her, she could never fool herself completely.

 _Emotions are prohibited._

That stupid rule couldn't stop the void in her heart from deepening; like some shapeless monster was physically digging through it with sharp claws, trying to find every small shimmer of hope it could find and devour it in its gaping maw every time she got the order to terminate him...

 _Emotions are prohibited._

...The order that she got just now as they headed back to their camp for the night. She walked slowly behind him; her feet dragging and her body swaying from side to side ever so slightly. She could hear him talking excitedly about something, but couldn't make out what he was saying; all the sounds around her blurred together in a cacophony of noise that drilled into her head like a swarm of angry bees.

 _Emotions are prohibited._

She didn't even register the sound of his footsteps stopping until she walked right into him, nearly knocking them both over. He caught himself and turned to look at her and she quickly tried to hide the despair from her face, but she was too slow.

"2B are you ok? That's not like you to do that." He asked before she even had the chance to open her mouth.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. Let me run a check on you to see what's up. I-" His words were cut off as 2B threw herself onto him, wrapping one arm around his waist and the other up his back and through his hair. She buried her face in his chest and squeezed her eyes shut tightly; soaking in the warmth radiating from his body and listening to the faint hum of his black box that she wasn't able to when not physically touching him.

"Whoa 2B! What-"

"Don't say anything." She ordered and squeezed harder. She could smell a faint, sweet, scent of something floral coming from his body. She figured he must have taken a bath recently; something androids didn't need to do and she never bothered with herself because smelling nice didn't have any effect on mission efficiency. _Maybe I should have listened more carefully whenever 6O talked about flowers. But what's the use in knowing that anyway?_

9S heeded her demand, and remained frozen for a moment before slowly bringing his arms up and returning the embrace. He rested his chin on her the top of her head and ran his fingers through her hair; a motion that brought her a small sliver of comfort and stability when all else was crumbling around her once again.

2B paid close attention to everything about this encounter. How his pulse rate was slowing to normal after immediately jumping to near-dangerous levels. How his gloved hands were warm against the bare skin on her upper back. How his breath made her hair flutter slightly and tickled faintly; in another life she might have twitched and giggled from the sensation, but now she felt nearly immune to any source of happiness.

She felt selfish. So selfish for pulling him into this embrace only to have to erase his memory of it and everything else in mere minutes. But she couldn't let go; it was as if her arms were locked in place by an unseen force. She didn't want to let go, but she did, at the same time.

"It's time isn't it?" His voice finally broke the silence. It was soft and understanding, but it didn't stop her from letting out a series of choked sobs which quickly devolved into full-scale wailing. She buried her face deeper into his chest as her tears soaked through her visor into the soft velvet of his coat.

She wanted to say something, to apologize, to ask him how long he knew; but all she could do was tremble in his arms as he gently ran his fingers through her hair.

"H-how long..." She breathed.

"Almost 3 weeks now. Command's not very good at keeping things hidden huh?"

"Oh... Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you keep staying with me? Why do you never run, or try to fight back like you used to?" Her voice slowly became louder and more desperate. "Why are you so calm? Why don't you kill me? Why don't you hate me? Why don't you... hate me, hate me, hate me, h-hate me, h-h-hate m-me?"

9S shrugged lightly. "I almost did... but I guess I got it out of my system a long time ago. Command's the one that's killing me, not you... they're just using you like a tool to do their dirty work. And I can't forgive them for that, for forcing someone so kind and caring to carry out a job like this."

 _Kind and caring?_ "I-I'm not-"

"You are." He interrupted. "You're not as good at hiding it as you think, I see the real you appear every once in a while. Wish I could have seen more of it though, but..."

2B let out a soft whimper but didn't respond verbally. Her quiet sobs and the faint breeze rustling the nearby trees were the only sounds to be heard as they stood there in silence for a long moment. Her legs became weak and felt like jelly and she began struggling to hold up her weight. 9S noticed this and gently lowered them to their knees so she didn't have to let go.

"Heh... I wonder what dying's like." He said after a while to no one in particular, almost inaudibly at first. "Well dying for good. Not getting destroyed by machines and waking up later in the bunker missing an hour of memories." Even in this final hour, his curiosity wasn't extinguished, however morbid it was. "I mean... is _this_ really dying? I'm still going to wake up back in the bunker like before, only..." He snapped back to reality. "I'm sorry, this isn't really helping is it?"

Again, she couldn't form words in response, only letting out a strained groan to acknowledge she heard him.

"Hey 2B? I'm glad I got to be your partner. It was fun, even though you tried to be cold and hide yourself from me. One of my favorite memories was that one time we got lost in that one forest trying to hunt down that one machine and we ran into that fawn. It was so tiny, and cute. Remember when I tried to pet it and it's mom came out of nowhere and chased me up a tree? I could have sworn you were laughing as you shooed them away to rescue me."

"Mmm." 2B nodded.

"And remember that time I nearly fell off that building? You grabbed my foot at the last moment and I slammed my face into the wall. It hurt like shit but I couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation."

"Yeah."

"Oh and that time we went to the Kingdom of Night and finally got to stargaze from Earth together? You said you were going to sleep but I knew you were watching them with me; you had your hands on your chest, but I knew you always kept them at your side when you were actually asleep."

"Heh... I can't fool you about anything can I?" She responded weakly.

"What can I say, I'm a scanner. Noticing things is my specialty." 9S closed his hand and tugged her hair gently before continuing. "Remember that one time when I..."

He went on like that for a while, recounting every shared memory that made him happy; 2B's crying subsided and she listened calmly to his last words. Eventually, he fell silent for a moment and just held her before letting out a sigh and speaking once again.

"Hey 2B? I'm ready when you are. I don't want to drag this out too much longer for... I'm sorry... I didn't... I hope this didn't make it harder on you."

"No. Thank you for this 9S, I'm g-glad you w-were happy. I... Ok..."

Trembling, with great effort, she procured a long dagger from her inventory and held it up behind his back, her hand shaking violently. "D-don't worry..." She sobbed, "I... know w-where to hit so it doesn't h-hurt."

"... Thank you, for everything. Goodbye 2B. I'll see you later... I guess."

"Goodbye... N-nines." She whispered as she plunged the dagger into his back, directly through his black box. She drove it in so forcefully it pierced completely through him and into her chest as well. She winced, involuntarily, in pain, yet wished for the dagger to have been long enough to kill her too, not leave a small scratch that didn't even warrant a drop of staunching gel.

"B-black box signal offline. I've completed my m-mission." She held onto him a while longer and wailed loudly and cursed whatever gods were out there that cursed them to such a fate. His body slowly grew colder and his artificial blood poured out, staining her clothes a bright crimson. She ignored the knife still digging into her chest, making more and more small cuts; none of which were large enough to cause any real damage.

Finally, she managed to compose herself just enough to pull the knife back out and toss it aside before gently laying him down. Her heart skipped a beat when she finally got a glimpse of his face for the first time since she wrapped her arms around him. He was smiling. It was such a peaceful and serene expression; she could have been fooled into thinking he was just sleeping and dreaming of one of the memories he just shared with her. Had it not been for the blood pouring from his wound and the freshly-dried tears streaking his face, it could have fooled anyone, really.

The sight triggered a new bout of sobbing as she doubled over and buried her head into his chest, not caring one bit that she was muddying her face with his blood.

"Emotions... are... prohibited..." She finally choked out. "I have to... contact... command... mission complete... Nines..."

It really was a never ending cycle of life and death. The only solace that she could glean from this was that, even though she was cold to him, even though she hurt him time and time again, he still was happy to be her partner and was able to form so many cherished memories with her in the short times they were together.

Maybe one day they'd be able to forge new ones together that she never have to take away.


End file.
